Information Session for Prospective International Applicants

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Hello everyone think.

He knows today my name is Arnold for G and.

I see that a lot of people are logging in currently so will just give it another 20 seconds and will be in.

Hi everyone, thank you very much for joining us today.

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Our session on advice for international students so as we mentioned on the registration page. We're not going to focus on program specific information. So you may have already attended webinars that are focusing on the programs more specifically and the admissions process and I do want to let you know that we have recorded many of those sessions. They are available on our website and that website will be listed in this part in this presentation as well so you'll be able to.

Find it easily the purpose of this webinar is to focus a little bit on funding opportunities. Where to seek information. How to apply for aid and different scholarship opportunities will give you a sense of the community here on campus sort of overall but also focusing on international students as well, and will talk about student support and Lastly. I wanted to introduce you a little bit to the visa process and how you go about actually arriving in the United States and.

And what that process is like so that's going to be very high level. We won't go into needy gritty details. But that's information that's applicable, regardless of where ultimately you end up going whether it's HTC or or anywhere else. In the United States and as I mentioned my name is Arnold for G and the associate director of admissions here at HTC I'm joined by my colleague who introduce yourself. Hi everyone, my name is Andrea Lee. I'm the international student program coordinator in the office of student.

Air is here HGSCI work primarily with HTC international students through programming or one on one consultation so should you join us here HTSC you will be hearing from me a lot.

Great and I see so let's do a quick sound check. If you can hear us. Can you please indicate on in the chat box that you can hear us?

OK, I'm seeing a lot of Yeses and that is perfect.

Great so this is the agenda for today. Will do a very quick listing over the degree programs that we have will talk about community student support financing your education here to HTC and then. Lastly, the visa process as well. So we're going to try and wrap. This up within the hour when you registered many of you actually most of you submitted questions in advance. So we're going to try and tackle. Some of those questions and of course, if you have any newer questions feel free to.

Type them in the chat box and will answer those at the very end and so.

A quick introduction as you probably already know so though we offer 2 degrees. So there's a Masters of Education, which has 13 different masses programs and they're all listed here and those range anywhere from 9 to 11 months long and some of them? Do provide licensure as well.

Uh the doctoral programs. There are two of those there is a Doctor of Education leadership and the PhD in education and so the Doctor of Education leadership. We consider that our practice space doctoral program. It's a 3 year program and in the 3rd year, essentially students will be doing their residency and so they'll be working full time. Hence, our practice based doctoral program and the purpose of that program is to prepare students to do system wide double work.

In the pre K through 12 education system in the United States.

So not as applicable to international students broadly but in situations where there are students who fall within being the international status. But do plan to or are in the process of for example, gaining their US citizenship and plan to stay in the US and work here. Then certainly that would be a program that you could consider otherwise the PhD in education is the more traditional research based doctoral program.

And it will prepare students for very research intensive positions. Many students going to academia and so on, and that is a 5 to 7 year program so both of those programs are also fully funded, which we'll talk about in a few minutes and so I wanted to give you a sense of our incoming class last year and so we had about 673 students, joining us from over 50 countries.

And they came from 4043 states in the United States.

So quite a diverse class are international student population made up 25% of the class and we were very happy to bring it a very diverse class in every definition of the word, and so certainly geographic diversity. 33% of our students self identify their students of color 74% female and 26% male which is very reflective of our applicant pool and.

You do see some of the average years of work experience here by by degrees so the EDM had an average of 4.2 years of work experience our doctoral students. The PhD students have 5.2 years. the EDL these students was our most experienced group at about 10.3 years of work experience and the work experience in general, for those students that did enroll ranged anywhere from straight out of undergrad to having 30 years of work experience and I notice one of the questions that someone submitted in advance was.

Is age a factor and certainly is not so there's you can't have too little or too much practice certainly not too much practice, but one statistic that I want to bring your attention to is our full time versus part time statistics. On 96% of our students are pursuing the program full time our programs are designed to be be full time on campus programs so they're not going to be, it's not possible to pursue any of our programs.

Fully online and so.

That that's certainly what happens when you have 96% of your students sort of making the conscious decision to leave work and focus on their education for a year is that you tend to have a very engaged student body essentially and community on campus. So there is this very evident commitment of people to contribute to live here. Students network with people across the different programs and so that does definitely lead to a very lively.

Experience for students and I will pass it on to my colleague Andrea to talk about support for international students awesome. Thank you so hello. Again, I'm going to talk a little bit about the office of Student Affairs and just give a broad overview of what we do so. Our primary role here. HTC is to support students throughout their time, we are the main stop for any student issue whether it be personal or academic.

We also just our focus on building community here, HTC so as their knowledge mentioned all of our students are very engaged. They want to be involved. They want to get to know other students So what we do in the office is really just help create programming and events that foster that sense of community and as I mentioned earlier. I work primarily with international students. So I would be your main point of contact with in the office of Student Affairs. So on this slide, you see various areas in which OSA overseas.

Like I mentioned before 1 on one student support and referral in my next couple of slides you'll notice. There are a ton of resources here at Harvard for our students. So the role of myself and my colleagues is really to help you navigate these resources and to ensure that you get the most out of your time here. HTC we cover large scale events like orientation and Commencement. An LG communitywide events. A lot of events are social in nature. We also work, a lot with diversity and inclusion.

And belonging so my colleagues and I work really hard to make sure that HTC is a community that is welcoming and inclusive for all identity is an backgrounds. We also cover access and disability services so if you're a person with a disability our office can help you set up the necessary accommodations, so that you can participate fully here at HTC also clubs and organizations, so this is a huge aspect of our community and we typically have about 45 registered clubs.

That are formed by HJC students throughout the year so you can visit our website. They're kind of getting off the ground now informing but you can see the ones that have formed so far. And there's a link to our website here on the page. I'm sorry another link but our website that you can visit at a later time so this is another great way to get to know, people with similar interests and develop you know that sense of community for yourself, also housing so our office does not supply housing, but we do provide information.

In housing so we can help you to navigate the search process. Whether that be through Harvard University housing or options. If you're looking for maybe some advice if you're searching off campus and the Cambridge or Boston area and of course, that I mentioned earlier my main role is to support international students.

So here on my next slide. I've outlined some of the areas that I oversee within international student support. So my outreach to student really begins over this summer before students arrive on campus. I host webinars for international students to help them better prepare for the transition to life at HGC. So when you arrive on campus. We have a day long orientation specific to international students that typically takes place before the schoolwide orientation.

This gives international students at chance to get to know each other and start to understand the various resources that are available throughout the year. I also run a lot of programming to address specific areas of interest for international populations. For example, I host weekly lunch and learn sessions, so these are really just get togethers with a specific topic of discussion. They're usually pretty casual. But they'll address topics that are on the minds of our international students for example.

Career development or in the spring time when it's tax season tax workshops or I'll bring in guest speakers to maybe a dress a certain aspects of us culture that might be a little bit harder to adjust to. I also run a program called the global spotlight series. It's not up here. But what I do is I invite international students to present on topics from their own interest from their own countries or cultures were keenly aware here HTC of the wonderful diversity that international students.

Bring to our community, so I like to facility that in showcase that for our community here.

We also have a lot of group outing so for example, we've all gotten brunch together at the famous Annenberg Hall, which is a freshman Freshmen Dining Hall. That's really beautiful. It kind of looks like Hogwarts. If you are familiar with Harry Potter. We also will do outings like Apple picking we went actually this weekend to local Orchard and did some Apple picking we have social gatherings like potlucks. There's a picture up here from a Divali Celebration, a couple years ago.

And then academic support as well so I will talk a little bit more about Harvard. Academic support in general, but through the office of Student Affairs. You can also meet with an academic coach and we also have the HTC Writing Center. Ann Leslie, I have a program called coffee with Andrea and really what that is to share that I'm available for individual appointments. I will buy students coffee so many students just come by to grab coffee or tea and just have a chat.

And then Lastly we do have a reception during graduation week for all international students and their families to really celebrate all your accomplishments here in the US?

So I just want to touch on a few additional support some as there. There were some questions that you submitted regarding collaboration with other offices across Harvard and we do a lot of that in the office of student affairs. So I've listed a couple of the offices that we work, a lot with here on this page and I've also included their website information in case you would like to visit them later and learn a little bit more about what they do. But the main office that I work most closely with is the Harvard International office.

So there is a liaison that is definite designated for the education school in hi or the Harvard International Office and we work very closely to address student visa concerns as they come up and they are also the best source of information for international students. They have new student guides prior to coming to HTC that you might want to look at they also address a lot of visa questions on their website, so definitely take a look at that.

We also I also work very closely with the career development center, so they are an office here at HGC that helps students even before arriving on campus to kind of identify their career goals and plan their job search. So they provide access to job search. Platforms job postings. We have a new resource called going global as a part of the career office that international students have access to. I work closely with them throughout the year to develop programming as well.

For example, workshops to strengthen interview skills specific to international students or providing information on options for working in the US. After graduation, counseling and mental health Services is another great ally here on campus. It's an excellent resource for students and we encourage all students to take advantage of their services and it's often important for international students in particular, to have access to counselors throughout their time here at HGC so often. I'll bring counselors from counseling and mental health services to campus.

And even their therapy dog sometimes for therapy dog events and it is free all of their services are free. If you are a part of the Harvard Health Plan and I'm also going to mention the Center for Wellness and health promotion. So we don't necessarily work closely with them. But I do refer students there a lot because they have meditation workshops weekly. They have yoga classes. Pilates that you can even get a massage for kind of a reduced rate, and acupuncture as well.

Academic Research Center, so I mentioned there are some Harvard wide academic resources and the hub of all of that is really the academic Resource Center, so you can meet with an academic coach through the Resource Center. You can get peer to peer tutoring. There is a program called the English as a second language consultant. So you can meet 1 on one with someone to address any concerns. Maybe about your English speaking abilities and then also the HGC writing center, so that's another great resource when you're here is a student.

They can help you kind of strategize any papers or projects that come up and help you could take your academic writing to the next level.

OK, I'm just going to do a really broad level. View over housing at Harvard. So I just want to say that there's nothing at this moment that can be done about you know, settling your housing, but it's never too early to kind of get a sense of the options that are out there, so I'm going to go over 3 types of housing the 1st is Harvard University housing so these are buildings that are owned and operated by Harvard. So if you choose to use Harvard University housing Harvard would operate as your landlord.

And most of the options within Harvard housing or apartments ranging from studios to 3 bedroom apartments. I've kind of separated one of these options out and that's Cronkite residence Hall because it's a little bit of a different set up this is actually the residence Hall that is closest to HTC so many of our HTC students. Do end up living in Cronkite. But it's residence Hall style. So it's a building for single students only and there is a required meal plan that is.

Attached to living in Cronkite are international students often like Cronkite, just because it is fully furnished so you don't have to worry about furnishing the apartment when you get here and also they do typically enjoy having that meal plan. As a part of their residents experience.

There is a lottery process for all of Harvard housing, but I do want to mention that students with families are given priority in the selection so that they can often get more access to some of the larger units with maybe 1 or 2 bedrooms.

The next option is the GSA S residence halls, so GSA S stands for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and they do a lot. Some rooms for HGC students to use again. Most of these are single student occupancy and do come with a meal plan.

And then the last option is private rentals, so if you think you would maybe prefer to look off campus. A lot of our students to live with in Cambridge, and the surrounding neighborhoods of Boston. So this map. You're kind of illustrates the numbers of where our students live so as you can see a lot of our students do live in Cambridge. But the public transportation in Boston is pretty good. So you would be able to live in a bordering neighborhood or even further than that an commute to campus.

And the last thing I'll mention is the graduate Commons program so this is a program that is associated with Harvard University housing an it's just another really big benefit to living in Harvard housing. It's kind of the community building side of being in a Harvard residence. So we recognize that a lot of your coming really far distances and starting not knowing anyone in this area, so the graduate common program really helps you to build that community within your residence halls.

So there's a lot of programming that takes place such as book nights movie nights. Guest speaker is a lot of family program so a lot of our students coming with families will have events to get to know the other younger people in the buildings and build community that way. I also put a link here to information and resources for spouses partners and children. So I did get a lot of question from family members and we do have a lot of students who travel here with their families so this is a wonderful resource this link here.

To look at so you can see kind of some of the supports that we give to spouses their partners and children, including schooling daycare and it would all of those options look like so I encourage you if you have a family to check out that link.

Thank you. Andrew so we're going to move on and talk a little bit about financial aid. And I'm I'm sorry about this slide here somehow when we uploaded the PowerPoint.

The sorting is a little bit off by the information is accurate still and so there are several sources and by the way people are saying that they are having issues with the sound. Please know that we are recording. This we are going to email it to everyone and you'll be able to listen to it on demand and hopefully when.

Are you? the Internet connection might be better on your end? So there are need based grants that students can be considered for there is a HTC financial aid application.

And so to be considered for need based grants. You do have to apply for them, essentially so you do have to fill out the financial aid application, there are certainly work study and internship opportunities for students plenty of those not just that HTC but there's also opportunities across the University remember you even though your immediate home is here at HTC. You are part of the larger institution as well so you do have access to.

Internship opportunities or work study opportunities outside of HTC as well. There are merit based awards. Some of these you're automatically considered for such as the leadership in Education Award. So each program will nominate someone and the leadership in Education Award is about 50% of tuition.

Then there are 2 different power ships that you can apply at the same time, and through the same application for the admissions application for REDM programs so those are the soles ends early childhood. Fellowship and the urban scholars fellowship, and so as the name of the fellowships indicate so this all senses for those who want to focus on early childhood education and then urban scholars fellowship is for those that do you want to focus their career?

Uh in urban urban education essentially and ensuring that people have equitable outcomes. There are also other additional Harvard scholarships. I do want to bring your attention to the zoo family scholarship, so this is for HTC students, only and it's applicable for citizens of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine and preference is going to be given to those who have a clear interest in working with refugees.

Uhm but the scholarship has been flexible in the past, you know, but but keep in mind that those are the priorities and so there is also the Committee on general scholarships, which will talk about that in the future slide as well loans typically are not available for international student without a US cosigner. However, at Harvard. We are fortunate enough to have our own credit union here, so there's the.

Harvard University employees created union and so we work with them to issue loans to international students for those who need it and they are capped last year, the maximum was I believe $16,000 and so you could do that as an international student without needing a US citizen or permanent resident to cosign for you and there's a question about the Susu. Fun here, so the Susu. Families cost if you don't need to apply to that.

We automatically will review all citizens from those 4 countries and will focus on the statement of purpose. And so, if you are someone with citizenship from any of those places and have an interesting happen to have very focused interest in working with refugees. You certainly want to talk about that somewhere on your application.

So here's some important resources the number one resource for you would be the financial aid office website so that is listed here and that has information for international student. It has an international student FA Q. For example, there's Fellowship Directory and so you'll see on the right hand side. That's a screenshot that you'll be able to actually find on that page when you go to the international student section.

And that's a directory of all scholarships that that we see sort of typically our students receiving right and the first one. All countries that applies to anyone regardless of what citizenship you have and then there are those by region that you'll be able to see so those are PDF you can open them download them. Plenty of resources it describes a different funding opportunities any points you to those external websites.

To seek those opportunities and so there is the list of the outside funding sources that we're aware of. There's the website. There so keep in mind that we cannot possibly be aware of every funding opportunity for students right so this we assemble this resource to be helpful to students and so that you also have a starting point. But a piece of advice would be for you to.

Perhaps reach out to the Department of Education in your countries. Also, if there is an education. USA Office in your country. They are a tremendously helpful resource, especially when it comes to funding opportunities. So you certainly want to take advantage of that. The Committee on general scholarships, which I promise I will talk about so they administer special financial aid that is available or scholarships and fellowship programs for international students.

Uh and those can be country specific sometimes so I've listed here countries, which I directly pulled from their website right so if you go to the website on the right for example, you'll be able to see this information right away. So if you live in any of the Arab League countries or anything, from Argentina. the United Kingdom and so certainly there are several funding opportunities through the Committee on general scholarships and.

If you live in Mexico for example, there's the harbored Mexico Foundation. That is based in Mexico and so they tend to fund a lot of Mexican citizens that study at Harvard. Not just HTC Sara Lee. You want to look for resources like that, but that is also available on the financial aid website so that's why I say that that should be your very first starting point, the comedian Journal Scholarships.

Their application deadline is after our.

Uh notification of the admissions decisions right so typically the way the process would work is that you would first apply for admission to HTC once you're admitted to HTC you want to.

Also apply for financial aid to it will actually you would apply to financial aid before you actually receive your admissions decision and then the 3rd step would be once you're offered admission, then visit the Committee on Java scholarship to sort of see what other scholarships. You may be eligible for based on their website.

And here are some of the deadlines. So we're talking about deadlines. It's helpful. If we just put those up here. So January 5th is a merit based fellowship application.

Which is the same deadline as our admissions applications for EDM February 7 is the ACC financial aid application?

And the restrictive scholarship application deadlines. So you definitely want to be mindful of those you want to do your research in advance and all those different funding opportunities. So you don't miss any other deadlines. If you find anything through the Committee on general scholarship. You certainly want to reach out to them and ensure that you know exactly when to apply and how to apply for the different funding opportunities and there could be some of them where they may reach out to you because we do ultimately send them.

The list of all the admitted students and the countries that there coming from so that they can then promote the different funding opportunities to you directly, but certainly cannot hurt to do some of that research in advance.

So.

There were a couple of questions that we received so there was some confusion around the deadline for the financial aid application and why it's so close to the admissions application. So you're essentially applying for 8 prior to knowing whether you're even at the minute.

So that is correct and that's on purpose. And so we do want to be able to give you your financial aid packages as soon as possible and typically those come out about. I would save 3 weeks after the admissions decision notification so if we wait until you're offered admission to then collect the financial aid.

Applications that will then delay your visa processing and we will pretty much ensure that you're not going to make it here in time. And so, but rest assure that we don't communicate with the financial aid office when it comes to the admissions review part of your application. The only time we really communicate with them is we pass them a list of all the admitted students and so you're whatever you're filling out in the financial aid application will have 0 impact it's not a factor.

We don't read it when we're reading your application and considering you for admission.

Now, if you're interested in the PhD program that is a fully funded program so you would essentially disregard. Everything you just heard about scholarships because the PhD program is fully funded. Yes, also for international students. That was a question. I received and so your tuition and health fees are covered, but then you, also receive a stipend in a PhD program. And this typing is not large enough that you're going to live in luxury but you'll certainly be able to.

To have you know an adequate apartment and be able to support yourself.

Uh and so the 1st and 2nd year, the tuition. Healthy's are covered and you receive this type and in the 3rd and 4th year, you don't receive this type and so that's one change in those 2 years. But you do have guaranteed income through teaching and research assistantships, so that's where you'll be working very closely with faculty and earn income that way, then your stipend does kick in again later on.

The 4th year and the average type and so this type in this past year was a little bit over $28,000 so that is for the 9 months because our academic year is 9 months and so the summer months, though there are opportunities for students to continue to do research with faculty and be able to earn income during the summer month summer months as well so that there's no interruption of money coming in essentially.

If you do apply an and are admitted to the EDLD program as a doctoral program that is also fully funded.

And the 1st and 2nd year your tuition healthy zance type are covered and you also receive a stipend, which is equal to the PHD's typing as well. And there are of course on campus work opportunities in the 3rd year. You don't get a stipend, but you are working full time you do your residence in the 3rd year and I believe the salary is a minimum of $65,000 for the 3rd year.

So let's move on and talk a little bit about the visa process because I do want to also give you a lot of time to ask questions and so will begin with some of the questions that people submit it and then we'll look at the chat inbox here and then see if there's any additional questions. But so the visa process. I added on here. The website that will point you to the Harvard International Office and that that office is responsible for serving the entire Harvard community.

Not just each GC but they do have a very nice section about the student visa process very high level. Differences between F1 and J1 and what do those mean and and so on so so definitely a lot of good information there?

But some general steps that I would highly advise you as international students to be aware of this and begin to do some of this work before you even get your admissions decision, so if you reply if you're going through the trouble of taking the GI reapplying to HTC I'm sure you're also applying to other places, which is absolutely what you should be doing keep in mind that the visa processes.

Likely going to be very similar and So what I mean by that is that the first day of obviously would be to be to confirm your enrollment with the institution and so you would essentially receive your decision sometime in March. Late March typically and then you would be the next step would be to submit the enrollment deposit. So you're essentially telling us that OK, you want to reserve your seat, you are coming and the next step.

Would be for us to assemble or collect the documents from you that. We are required to collect by the US government in our in order for us to issue you. The document with which you're going to then schedule your visa appointment at the US Embassy and we call that process. The financial certification process. And so essentially we're making sure so taking into consideration the total cost of education at Harvard, so which would be tuition health ease.

Books living expenses if you are coming with dependants for example, with children. There is going to be additional costs for that right. They do need to feed them. You do need to make sure that they have health insurance. And so on. And so there are additional Association associated costs. With that or spouses for example, as well. Same situation so we want to then make sure that we know what the total cost is based on your unique circumstances circumstances.

We would then subtract any grants that you may have received weather from Harvard or outside of Harvard and then the remainder should be something that is reflected in a bank statement and so the bank statement.

Typically, so for HTC certainly, but you know, even more generally first of all it would need to be in English and most institutions like us would require that the bank statement be in the US dollar currency to protect you from the currency fluctuations and so.

And then at age CSC. We do require that the bank that you are using and depositing those funds in has at least 1 branch in the United States. Because then that guarantees that you do have easy access to fund to your funds here in the United States and so, if you live in a country where that's just not a possibility for you, certainly reach out to us and we may have other opportunities.

One of those being you opening an account with the Harvard University employees credit union they will allow you to do that. Prior to coming here and then you can do a wire transfer so will will do more sessions as the year goes on and will dive really deep into the actual financial certification process so will give you a lot more details but typically that that's the process that you're going to go through now when it comes to the outside scholarship letters. We do, obviously need to know.

Who the sponsoring organization is how much the scholarship is? What exactly it's covering is it in USD or is it in local currency and then also how will those fund reach HTSC and so there's a separate process for that. There's a lot of information on our website on how to do that as well, but also be mindful of the fact that not every.

Um person or organization is going to be able to sponsor you. We may not be able to accept every every sponsor. So certainly if it's a well known national or international organization will typically accept those letters that is fine. But if it's a family friend. That's issuing you a letter promising to fund you for example.

Loan you money for your tuition or whatever the situation is we may need something more than just the letter and we will walk you through those steps later, on if that situation applies to you. But when you're applying for your financial certification on the form. You're also going to indicate do you are you seeking an F1 visa or J1 visa so to get a J1 visa?

More than 50% of your funding needs to come from outside sources, so it can't be your funds any grants. You're getting from Harvard. So it it has to be an outside.

Organization not related to Harvard that's funding. You Fulbright, sometimes will will typically also sponsor students is J1 visas and so they're the ones that then issue your DS 2019. So so that you can get your visa the F1 Visa is your standard student visa essentially that is the one that you are able to do and RPT after you complete your program with the J1 Visa.

You require to go back but the J1.

If you are coming with a spouse for example, and your and J1 Visa. They are allowed to work in the United States, while you're pursuing yours. Your study so there are some differences between the two visas and those are also highlighted on that website that I posted right above so once you submit the financial certification documents and it's all in order then we go ahead and issue. You that US government document, which is either the I-20 or the DS 2019.

Depending on the visa typed you requesting you will then use that to ask for an appointment at the US. Embassy now depending on the countries of E at times can.

Uh the visa wait times can get longer and longer very quickly and so we definitely do you recommend that students begin the process as early as possible and so if you have been admitted an you have figured out your your funding how you're going to pay for your education. All your documents are in order. You can then begin to submit those even before May 25th which is sort of a deadline, they were.

Uh highlighting here, so this coming year. We're going to begin to process. I 20s and financial certification documents much earlier so but typically so here's the scenario to sort of give you a sense of how much how long it takes for you. To actually get your Visa and be able to come to the US so you submit your documents on May 25th.

It takes us on average anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks to process your documents right. So when you submit your finances that we give certification form you also attaching scan copies of your documents.

On the form itself, so make sure that when you submit that you have all of the documents already and so you do it all in one shot and we are going to be very specific with instructions on what bank letters need to look like and so on, but we don't you don't need to Mail official documents to us. You would just keep those and bring the official original documents to your visa appointment, but it takes on average 2 to 3 weeks to process your finances.

Certification documentation.

And uh you typically will receive an email confirmation that your I-20 has been approved anywhere between 11th of June to the 15th and then typically there will need to then ship your I-20 to you so there's also takes time. Typically, 4 to 5 business days. But that can be a lot longer, depending on the country. Once you do have your eye to any intent you will then pay your CSV.

Through the US government website and.

With that process you will then request your visa appointment in some countries, you can get an appointment the same week in some countries and depending on the time of the year. We may need to wait 2 months and so once you go to your visa appointment if it's approved right away, which is the case for the vast majority of our students then. Some countries will give you the passport in the same day. Other countries will then Mail it to you so you have to build in a lot of time for delays whether it's mailing or scheduling and things like that.

Or if there is questions that come up essentially during your visa appointment, so I also wanted to make you aware of this website. If you haven't already visited this page. I encourage you to do that. We have recorded a lot of webinars that are on that. Page, a lot of them are program. Specific there's also an admissions webinar that was recorded. An is up on the page and that also answers a lot of the questions that I've seen on here.

Related to application.

Processes so there's a lot of information on that page and we will probably end up putting this webinar on that page as well. Although we are certainly going to be emailing you a link as someone who either registered or attended but there's also some upcoming events. So there's going to be a PhD student chat. That's going to be online application advice for PhD and also for the EDM programs as well. So we'll talk about the statement of purpose. The letters of recommendation the transcripts sort of.

Give you a sense of how those are reviewed and what we're looking for the so certainly be on the lookout for that. There is going to be a more in depth financial aid session with myself or another colleague with also our counterpart in the financial aid office. And, please, also be on the lookout for any announcement on additional online webinars that will be happening as well.

In the mean time I do encourage you to also visit the admissions blog that we are so our students tend to be pretty engaged and typically there is posting every week with different topics and different perspectives on transitioning to HTC and advice for students coming in and so on, and with that. I'll pass it on to Andrea to perhaps answer toward 3 questions and then I'll answer a few questions as well.

Awesome. Thank you so a lot of you asked about research assistant positions or teaching fellow positions or just more generally work on campus, so as international students. You are eligible to work anywhere on Harvard's campus, so that doesn't necessarily mean just HGC you could work at another school within Harvard or even the teaching hospitals that are affiliated with Harvard so that is definitely a possibility and can definitely help students.

Implement that costs here of studying in the US. There is a limit to the amount of time. You can work per week. So you can't exceed 20 hours of work per week while you are a full time student.

Um.

I saw a question come up regarding visas, so if you currently are either on OPT or attending another institution within the United States and your visa will still be valid for your year at HTSC. You can absolutely use that visa to come to HTC do not need to apply for another visa just keep in mind. It should be valid for your time here and you don't need to change the name on the visa so even though it says another.

Institution it's OK to use it here HGC because you're I-20 will reflect that. You are student here at Harvard.

So we received a question from one student asking about interviews, so the interviews are a required part of the application process. For for both doctoral programs. But they're not required. It's not even an option for the EDM programs the masses programs.

Excellent question.

So a lot of you, um asked about options for OPT after graduation. and I did mention during my section in the presentation that I do work closely with the Career Center here at HGC so that's a service that you're really going to want to tap into to start thinking about especially for Masters programs to start thinking about your year of OPC really. When you start here. HG OC so under resources on that page that can help you to think about.

Preparing for the job surge and making yourself, you know, an attractive candidate for your year of OPT.

Ray so 1 question here is experience in education in excuse me. I can't speak English that I so applicants required to have work experience in the education industry that is not a requirement certainly would be helpful. If you are pursuing a program that is sort of building upon the experience that you've already had an it's directly related but also it's quite common for students.

Answering the masses programs with the goal of changing careers so they may have had work experience in finance for example, or enter preneurship or something not necessarily related to education, but but they do want to get into the field of education, so that's certainly a possibility the GRE is mandatory for.

All of our programs and so we don't wave. It even if you already have a Masters. For example, or your degree was in the United States or whatever the scenario is the GRE is mandatory.

There was a question here that an admissions question so not necessarily applicable to this particular weapon are but I'll answer it. So the question is whether you are required to reach out to faculty prior to applying so you do not have to do that for our doctoral programs on the application for the PhD program. You will be able to indicate faculty that you are interested in working with.

Uh error faculty that you're interested in having them as advisers, essentially and.

You will.

Be able to learn from our website on the PhD program page. You'll be able to ultimately get to a page that talks about the research that faculty members are doing and and who are the HTC or non a CSE faculty members that advise students within particular concentrations of the PhD. But any admissions questions that can be answered in a future webinars that will focus on admissions so.

Decisions are released in March.

OK.

We have a few minutes left so weak we could take a couple more questions. So Andrea and I basically tailored are talking points based on the questions that people submit it in advance so.

Um.

So 1 question here is how many students are admitted to the PhD program per year. So I will tell you that we have approximately around 25 seats for the PhD program every year.

The tuition is the same whether you are a US citizen or an international student there's no difference there.

So and there is a question about Isleton Tofel, which which is great, so the Tofel Auriel's whichever one you prefer to take is fine with us is required. The only time we waive it is if your undergraduate studies and we're very specific about this undergraduate studies.

Were completed at an institution where the sole language of instruction was English?

And so.

In those situations. We are able to waive it so clearly. If you did your undergrad in the US. It's automatically wave but if you did, it anywhere else, where the sole language of instruction was English then it will also be waived if you did. Your Masters in the United States. That doesn't count so it's the undergrad degree that we go.

Off off.

1 question here is if you were accepted can you defer the decision for a year or 2?

2. Probably not for a year, certainly it's a possibility. You do need to appeal for that.

And very few appeals are approved for you to differ. Your enrollment and so our advice would be that you should apply when you know you're ready to pursue the program.

Great.

So 1 question is how much should 1 international student prepared to cover the tuition and living expenses. In one year if without Merit Awards. OK so essentially you're asking? What is our total cost of attendance so that information is on our website but keep in mind. The total cost of attendance is going to be different case by case so the tuition. Obviously is the same for everyone. The health expenses are the same for everyone, but then you're going to have variables.

Do you have your own studio or are you sharing an apartment with a roommate for example? Are you coming by yourself or are you coming, with with a spouse and children. So there are other variables that will impact your total cost as well. But that is that information is available on the financial aid website so please do visit that.

OK.

Uh and the question about the PhD in education, whether it's fully funded. Yes, yes, the PhD is fully funded and I'm sorry is the DLD as well.

Great.

So I think I will take one more question, and will actually maybe 2 questions and we can answer so I'll answer the ACC have priorities for certain countries and then Andrea will talk about when we should apply for housing so there are no priorities for certain countries are priority is to bring in as diverse a class and then is competitive class as possible to HTC.

And when I say competitive meaning you know, people who are driven not necessarily people that would contribute to a cutthroat environment, which is certainly not the case at a CSE. You know, but but certainly students that will be engaged in the community and really make the most of the educational opportunities here.

So I can adjust the question regarding housing, so typically students will apply in the spring. Prior to the fall semester that they will be attending HGC. I believe that the housing deadline for Harvard University housing last year. Such is the midden application to be considered for Harvard University. Housing believe it was May 1st. I'm not sure what the deadline will be this year. It's usually around. Then there's no priority based on kind of time you submit the application all applications have to be.

Submitted by usually May 1st and then your submitted into the lottery process to get a number to then select your housing and as I did mention before families are given priority so if you're traveling with young children or with a stylus and you need a larger apartment that you can indicate on your housing application and typically you're given a higher number to select housing.

OK, so it looks like we have another minute, so I'll just answer a couple more questions 1 question is what are the requirements so students can get financial aid so financial aid will be there merit based or need based so some you're automatically considered for the need based obviously is going to be dependent on your income and so.

I'm not I don't know what the exact criteria are that would be a question for financial aid. But on the financial aid slide earlier. I gave the email address. If you want to reach out to financial aid and you'll be able to review this recording later as well, and one question is can dependants or spouses of students work part time for example, that depends on the visa type that you do have so when you go to the page for the Harvard International Office to link that I gave.

You'll be able to see the differences in which visa type allows spouses to work in the United States and what are the requirements for obtaining that visa type so I think with that the website is going to cut us off automatically and I wanted to say thank you very much for being with us today and we look forward to sending you the recording shortly either today or tomorrow, great, thanks everyone for joining us.